September 2010 Archives

Sebastian Faulks’s 1993 novel about the horrors of the First World War not only became a runaway bestseller but its success is ongoing. The novel already has modern classic status. It is also an A Level set text, which means that it is discovered by more and more young people every year. The first war poets such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are GCSE perennials too, so substantial numbers of young readers discover Birdsong at age 15 or 16 because its themes sit so well with the poetry.

And now we have Rachel Wagstaff’s adaptation of the novel for the stage, directed by Trevor Nunn, which I saw at Comedy Theatre earlier this week. (Read The Stage’s review - Ed.)

I expected to notice a whole new raft of student learning opportunities in the production and I wasn’t far wrong.

One of my sons bought a house in Peterborough and lived there for a while, during which I became acutely aware of the socio-economic and cultural deprivation in the area.

So I was pleased to see that the company New International Encounter (NIE) and Eastern Angles have been commissioned by Arts Council England and Peterborough Borough Council to work with 700 or so local primary school children on the creation of a new piece, Tales from the Middle of Town, which is due to be staged in a former Waterstones in the city centre next month.

Through lots of storytelling and theatre workshops the company has co- created the show with the children, which is based on quite literal interpretations of the stories they wrote, including the pirate who works in a bridal shop to the boy who uses hairy monster shampoo.

I’m at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts which nestles scenically on the hillside beneath the grandiloquent Anglican Cathedral. Mark Featherstone-Witty, founder principal, has invited me and is treating me like an honoured guest. I’m here because I am sometimes accused (with some justification) of sidelining the excellent training institutions well outside London in favour of the handy ones in the south-east.

So I have hopped on a train from Euston (having first commuted into St Pancras from Kent and strolled along Euston Road) and reached lovely Liverpool in just over two hours. Not so remote after all. And I’m delighted to be here.

Do actors need to study history? Answers on a postcard please, or at least in a posted blog comment.

Two experiences in one day last week set me thinking about this. First I went to Sylvia Young Theatre School (SYTS) which has now moved into its magnificent new building off Edgware Road complete with ten studios, two spacious floors for academic work, large canteen, gardens and penthouse flat for Young and her husband. It’s a vast converted, former Christian Scientist church with exquisite stained glass and now is all set to educate increasing numbers of children who have performing arts talent to an even higher standard than before. I was there to interview Young, Artistic Director Steven Baker and two students about the new building, for a Stage podcast which should be available very soon.

But something struck me, in passing while I was talking to SYTS student Grace Vance, 16, who plays Molly in BBC TV’s Ashes to Ashes. Grace, who is applying herself very hard to her GCSEs as well as working professionally, told me that she hopes to go next year for A levels to a college which will understand why she hasn’t done a subject such as history at school. “But I have done things like Expressive Arts which are more use to me, given my career hopes,” she said.

A few hours later I was at the Drill Hall for the first night of Musical Theatre Academy’s Dangerous Daughters (pictured above, in a photo by Francyne Carr) which I enjoyed very much. The piece, whose fine music and lyrics are by MTA’s dynamic founder, principal Annemarie Lewis Thomas, with book by Nick Stimson, was performed by the college’s first intake of eleven young women and two young men at the beginning of their second and final year. Despite the newness and smallness of the college, every one of these actors is employable and castable and several - Erica Birtles, Sam Hallion, Lauren Austin and Samantha Hull - are outstanding. Agents and casting directors should have a field day here when these trainees finish their course next summer. No wonder the new intake of students who start this month were such enthusiastic audience members.

I was reminded, though, of Grace’s remark about the expendability of history for performers. The moving and intelligent Dangerous Daughters is about the suffragettes and very well researched - I’m not at all bad at history but I learned several new (to me) things from this show. ‘Of course none of the students knew anything of this history’ Lewis Thomas told me during the interval. ‘But they’re absolutely smitten with it. They’ve researched and researched and are still excitedly still swapping via Facebook the new things they’ve learned.’

I’m reminded of Alan Bennett who said of the first NT production of The History Boys that he and Nick Hytner had to spend a lot of the rehearsal time filling in the education gaps of the young cast who didn’t understand the allusions in the play.

So performers DO need to know some history and a basis, as part of their school education, might be a good starting place. Thinking just of the shows I’ve seen in London in the last few months, you’d never make sense, say, of The Crucible, Danton’s Death, the Henrys and many more without some pretty solid understanding of historical context. Or can you merely mug it up when you need it? Surely that’s mere soundbite history and precludes the real depth of knowledge you need to bring a performance to life?

I await your thoughts with interest.

Books about performing arts (along with children’s novels, how-to tomes for teachers, etymology and reference titles but that’s another story) land on, and scuttle across, my desk in an alarmingly continuous stream. Sometimes it’s difficult to keep up. I read most of them, however. Take the tiny (4 by 5½ inches) Sing Your Heart Out by Deborah Hudson with illustrations by Tony Husband. I’m a lifelong amateur choral singer so I pounced on this one.

It actually teaches you how to sing - from getting the right posture, doing simple exercises, listening to others and then what to do with your newly developed rudimentary technique. Quite an achievement in 44 tiny and generously illustrated pages. Basic as it might be, this little book has the potential to be a useful starting point for anyone wanting to sing, or sing better, at amateur or professional level. Hudson, a singing teacher who works with students of all ages and abilities, has a gift for presenting her information with clarity and wit.

With so much going on at the Globe just now and the excitement about its sparky new education building which opens later this term it would easy to overlook another quiet education achievement on Bankside.

For ten years - they’re having a little birthday party next week - The Globe has been running an MA called Shakespeare Studies: Text and Playhouse, in partnership with King’s College London.

An email from Kevin Dowsett, founder of Theatretrain, always means something large-scale is about to happen. Dowsett, and his nationwide chain of 86 franchised children’s part-time theatre schools, doesn’t do small.

On 26 September, at the Royal Albert Hall, Theatretrain, Dowsett tells me, will present the first performance by the World Children’s Theatre Ensemble, part of the children’s charity Arts By Children.

Powered by a succession of driving and pulsating music - from the Pussycat Dolls’ Jai Ho to I’ll be There for You by the Rembrandts, and from Coldplay’s Viva La Vida to the Killers and U2, the story follows the journey of a tribe who grow up, marry and face the challenges of the world. What happens when the ruler dies and the children have to create a new order?

MA courses relating to performing arts seem to be getting ever more specialised and focused as providers hone in on the minutiae of what high-end vocational training students really need. And many of them are working in partnerships and collaborations to build in real industry involvement alongside the academic stuff. I wrote recently, for instance, about Rose Bruford’s new MA in Theatre for Young Audiences taught at and through Unicorn Theatre.

Now I see that the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is launching an interesting post-grad degree too. It’s an MA in Event Production and it’s a partnership between the College and event production company, Production 78.

I suppose it is inevitable that quite a lot of unsolicited items and material come my way. It goes with the territory if you write regularly anywhere. Hopefuls frequently send me books, DVDs, videos, play scripts - much of it awful stuff - and desperate pleas for advice about everything from how to get into drama school to how to get your work published. Although I do my best to be constructive - and hey I’m English so politeness is programmed in - there isn’t much I can do for most of these wannabes. So I am not, definitely not, inviting more. I am unlikely, please note, to be able to help. The sad truth is that my sphere of influence is nothing like as great as some of you (and perhaps I) would like it to be and the industry we’re working in, or trying to, is fiercely competitive.

Nonetheless sometimes something just catches my eye - tentatively. The latest, which arrived while I was on holiday last week is the text by Alvin Luffman of a short (5,500 words) one man play/monologue on which the influence of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads is clear. I liked the cheeky title ‘The Angina Dialogue’ so I read it. The central character is an old man sitting reminiscing by his hospital bed waiting for his son to come and take him home. There are eight acts. Actually - although his material is presented circa 1942 style and I suspect he doesn’t own a computer because the work is handwritten, photocopied and spiral bound - Mr Alvin has got quite a strong handle on the voice and attitude of his Archie Snatchpole. In places it made me giggle aloud and in the hands of a skilled director and good actor it could, just could, make workable theatre. Mr Alvin tells me in his covering letter that he could rework it as a female role if required.

If you are, for example, a student looking for a low budget show or showcase material, or a radio or TV producer (which is, of course, what Mr Luffman would really like) wanting new, gentle, but perspicacious material, this could, at least, be worth your looking at. Contact me if you’re interested and I’ll put you in touch with the playwright. Leave a message here, a phone message at The Stage (020 7403 1818) or Direct Message me (SusanElkinJourn) on Twitter.